"He didn't come to gloat over you."
"What did he come for then?"
To her own surprise Eleanor heard her own voice saying, as if unaided it tapped some source of knowledge never before open to her, "Because you know very well, Lydia, the man's in love with you."
Lydia sprang forward like a cat.
"Never say such a thing as that again!" she said. "You don't understand, but it degrades me, it pollutes me! Love me! That man! I'd kill him if I thought he dared!"
Nothing rendered Eleanor so calm as excitement in others.
"Well," she said, "perhaps I'm mistaken," and appeared to let the matter drop; but the other would not have it.
"Of course you're mistaken! But you must have had some reason for saying such a thing. You're not the kind of person, Eleanor, who goes about having disgusting suspicions like that without a reason."
"Do you really want me to give you a reason or are you only waiting to tear me to pieces, whatever I say?"
Lydia sat down and caught her hands between her knees, determined to be good.